Bobby Jindal continues to talk a better game than he delivers --
and I say this as a
longtime
supporter of his. This link is from the web site of C.B. Forgotston, a
conservative tax and budget expert who spent seven years as a top
aide for the state House Appropriations Committee. C.B. is no fan
of Jindal's -- because, he says, Jindal doesn't actually walk his
conservative talk. C.B. always has been mighty uncompromising,
but then again, he usually lets actual facts do the talking, and
facts don't compromise.
This isn't the first time Jindal has disappointed. His vaunted
ethics reforms did indeed strengthen the RULES against ethical
violations, but while he wasn't looking, the bad-ol'boys changed
the STANDARDS governing ethics investigations to make it more
difficult to bring charges in the first place. So Louisiana ended
up with tougher rules that were, unfortunately, tougher to
enforce.
My point here is not to slam Jindal. I actually think he is a
sincere, reformist conservative. And he really is incredibly
bright. But he (and his administration) are far from perfect, and
if conservatives want Jindal to become a serious candidate to be
their standard-bearer in the future, we must insist that he
continue to improve his performance, in the details where it
counts. He's awfully good at national PR. But he needs to
continue to seek real excellence and live up to the standards he
claims to profess -- because otherwise, if he is put forward as
the Golden Boy but turns out to have feet of clay, he'll never
survive the meat grinder of national media attention. It's a lot
easier to pop the balloon of people whose whole reputation is
based on being purer than newfallen snow than it is to drag down
somebody who already is seen as a hard-nosed pol.
So conservatives must hold Jindal's feet to the fire. For our
sake, and for his. His potential is almost limitless. His
performance needs to stop lagging behind.
